The Cuckoo bird is fondly welcomed in Inis Meáin as a harbinger of early summer. Cuckoos winter in central and southern Africa, and the young Cuckoos born in Inis Meáin manage to migrate successfully to Africa in late summer, a few weeks ahead of their parents. In a community so close to nature, this wondrous phenomenon and the distinctive Cuckoo call has long captured the imagination and the Cuckoo or An Chuach in Irish, is often included in local names and sayings associated with the island's nature, even traditionally helping in long-range weather forecasting and farm planning... read more